Russia Battles Record High Temperatures

Photo Credit: NASA, Satellite image of smoke and fires in western Russia

There has never been a summer like this. Never. Not once.â€ ~Ivan Tyurkin, Russian fisherman, nytimes.com

This has been one of the hottest summers on record, not just here but also in Russia, where folks are well prepared for the icy grip of freezing temperatures…Sweltering heat- not so much.

Sweltering is relative but by any stretch of the imagination when Eastern Siberia, one of the coldest places on Earth, hits 90 degrees plus, in the evening, something’s wrong.

As a result of these high temperatures Russia’s worst drought in 130 years has withered millions of acres of wheat. Forest fires have been erupting and spreading, some even in the forests near nuclear power plant Chernobyl. Environmentalists warned the fires are sending radioactive smoke downwind.